Category Archives: Random Thoughts

I took this test today after seeing a link on Ravelry. I am somewhat relieved by my results, which peg me as the socially-functional nerd-geek that I have always claimed to be.

Your result for The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test…

Modern, Cool Nerd

70 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 26% Dork

For The Record:

A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia.
A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one.
A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions.

You scored better than half in Nerd and Geek, earning you the title of: Modern, Cool Nerd.

Nerds didn’t use to be cool, but in the 90’s that all changed. It used to be that, if you were a computer expert, you had to wear plaid or a pocket protector or suspenders or something that announced to the world that you couldn’t quite fit in. Not anymore. Now, the intelligent and geeky have eked out for themselves a modicum of respect at the very least, and “geek is chic.” The Modern, Cool Nerd is intelligent, knowledgable and always the person to call in a crisis (needing computer advice/an arcane bit of trivia knowledge). They are the one you want as your lifeline in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire (or the one up there, winning the million bucks)!

…your fitness blog’s page views and visitor numbers spike like crazy right after the holidays end, and your #1 referring search engine term is “P90X.”

Stay tuned this week as I kick off a recap of ALL the fitness programs I have tested out in the past 5 years and let you know which ones I recommend for different goals, budgets, and personality types.

Irene at Pink Dumbbells challenged us this week to find a race in our area on November 9 and join her in walking or running a 5k. Well, as you know I am not fan of running, but I am usually down for a 5k once the weather cools down a bit in Florida, so I Googled around for some nearby races.

There was only one race in my area that day, and it was 40 minutes away in Celebration. The supported cause was prostate cancer research. While this is a worthy enough cause, I would not normally donate money to something like this because I prefer to give to local animal charities or international organizations that help educate women in developing countries. The registration for the race was $20.

Then I checked Active.com and found out about the 10th Annual World Run Day, a sort of DIY, worldwide race day which just happens to fall on November 9th this year. Registrants pay $17.99 via Active.com to officially put their names on the list of participants with a custom dedication and to receive a printable race number and a World Run Day race t-shirt. On the big day, you choose your own route and distance, run at your own chosen time, and then donate more money to a charity of your choice. As an added bonus, you can feel warm and fuzzy knowing that you are part of a global initiative to encourage fitness and giving.

Very cool, I thought, but what a pity that the $17.99 entry fee doesn’t include any sort of donation to charity. I’d have to give another $15, $20, or whatever on top of that to my chosen charity, which would hike up the price of participation considerably.

Then I realized: Why don’t I just skip the middle man? What are they providing me besides a row of text in a HTML table on a website no one I know will visit and a t-shirt that will end up in my “Refashion Fodder” box?

So this is what I plan to do:

On November 9, 2008, I will spare myself the 40-minute drive to Celebration and run 5k around my neighborhood wearing a race shirt of my own inkjet iron-on design (probably reading, “The only good part about running is STOPPING!” and “1st Annual Caustic Musings Pink Dumbbells* Charity 5k”) and a printed race number from the HP Laserjet at work. When I complete the 5k distance, I will award myself official-looking certificates for winning my age group, gender group, and overall. Then I will have a celebratory breakfast of buttermilk oatmeal pancakes, turkey bacon, honey, fruit, and an egg white/veggie omelette and dash off a $20 check to the SPCA of Central Florida.

So how about it?

Anyone else planning on making their own 5k race on November 9? What will you call it and which cause will you support?

* Name changed because several other Pink Dumbbells members are interested in doing this, too. I will be making a downloadable t-shirt design that everyone can print off on their own iron-on transfer paper at home.

It’s one of the most common questions on any female fitness or fat loss forum:

“I bulk really easily in my legs. What kind of exercises should I do to reduce the size of my thighs? HELP!”

I’m going to be the devil’s advocate here and observe that in most cases, when a woman is complaining about thigh circumference, it isn’t because her legs are 99% muscle with just a paper thin layer of skin over them. Most of us who profess to have muscular legs also have an obvious medium to thick layer of squishy padding over them. I know I do unless I am very clean with my food and consistent with my cardio–I swear that there is a symbiotic relationship between strong legs and a convenient supply of nearby fat cells to provide nourishment.

When we are lean and our legs are defined, we don’t mind the muscle so much because random strangers will come up and tell us they look amazing, but when we have been naughty with our eats and sloppy with our workouts, we cry, “Wah! Bulky! Woe is me! Where did these heinous Quadzillas come from?! O Magic Thigh Fairy, save me from my monstrous legs!”

Unless you *are* at the stage where your thighs literally don’t jiggle when you land from a jump knee tuck, I think that diet needs to be of higher priority than the nitpicky details of what kind of cardio to perform or which leg exercises to avoid.

I got into an interesting conversation today on the nature of hobbies with a friend of mine.

Our husbands are both primarily gamers in their spare time, which means that they spend many hours at a stretch engaged in an activity that ultimately produces no tangible goods. This must be enjoyable to a high degree to the participants, or why would they engage in it otherwise? This group of fellows is quite diverse in their gaming hobby, too: They play massively-multiplayer online roleplaying games like City of Heroes and World of Warcraft as a group/guild, they get together in real life (often in my dining room!) for Dungeons and Dragons, WoW collectible card games, and Mechwarrior miniatures, and hang out in forums dedicated to–you guessed it–gaming. There is a huge social aspect to their gaming, too. They all seem to prefer games that are played in groups to ones that are solo endeavors.

As a former Evercrack and Gemstone III multi-user dungeon addict, I know that computer games in particular can be a pretty heady addiction, but somewhere along the way, I developed a preference for hobbies that produced actual physical items or intellectual property. I like creating things from scratch with my hands, using skills and talents that I have acquired and honed over time. That is why I draw, sew, cook, write, garden, craft, make web sites, and read. Even my exercise hobby is productive–I am achieving a particular look and physical ability level for my body.

I also don’t like to hang out with others while engaging in my hobbies since social interaction takes my focus off my creations. This doesn’t mean that I won’t share my end product AFTER I’m finished, but I don’t want anyone bothering me when I am actually working on it. When I do play a game, I always choose single player titles that don’t force me to group with others to achieve key objectives. When I learn a new song for karaoke, I do it by myself in my living room and car many times before I ever perform it in public.

What kind of hobbyist are you? Are you more about the experience (Doer) than the production of a physical object (Maker)? Would you rather play with others or put all of your energy into the task at hand with no distractions?

I was left to my own devices last night when my husband went out to play some cards (the WoW collectible card game, not poker) with his geek crew, so I fired up the DVR and finally watched Brokeback Mountain for the first time whilst roasting a chicken, balancing my accounts in MS Money, and hoovering the carpet, not necessarily all at the same time.

Plenty has been said about the film, so I will just say that I found it really well acted, very emotionally engaging, and worthy of a few leaked tears at the end.

However, amidst all the blubbering I still noticed something really funny. Funny for me, anyway. Maybe not so much for my husband given the origin of my discovery.

eHarmony has kindly given me permission to post two of the eHarmony.ca commercials now airing in Canada. Chris and I were filmed in Philadelphia this past December for a few of the shots along with two other awesome couples.

A: Average – Asians must always â€œearnâ€ that A+ or extra credit point on the Calculus test. There is no such thing as â€œgood enoughâ€ of a grade.B: Bad – This is a warning sign. If an asian student earns this grade, they are on track for failure, and will eventually bring shame to their family.C: Crap – This is the feces that the B-Grade was warning about.D: Death – If asians show this to their parents, they will most likely be disowned and have their name removed from their parentsâ€™ wills.F: Donâ€™t go thereâ€¦

The most amazing part about the above is that my parents never had to explicitly tell me any of this out loud. I feel like I’ve always just instinctively KNOWN it since birth. Or kindergarten at least.

I begin to suspect that Mommy Wang possessed some incredibly powerful but subtle talent in telepathy back in the day.